This book's theme (the relationship between a stepmother and stepchildren) has seldom been written about, even though many families have experienced the challenge of adjusting to such a situation. The author has attempted to depict this fictional (but very true-to-life) family from every angle and with feeling for all the characters.

Similar to the other books in the Amish Pioneer Series, this story has its setting in an extinct settlement a century ago, this time in Mississippi. The problems these fictional characters faced did exist in that community: frustrations with the sharecropper system, unpredictable weather, unfamiliar crops, and deaths from malaria.